Electric Motorcycles: What You Need to Know

Unless you live in the jungle, you are aware of the constant push to move away from fossil-fuel-based power and toward renewable resources. So we know that it’s coming. But, of course, we’ve known it’s been coming for a long time. Part of it is practical. A whole lot of it is purely political. But whatever the reasoning, electric transportation was once too far out of reach for technological reasons. However, battery power has radically improved over the past couple of decades, where electric cars and electric motorcycles are anything but uncommon. 

We know that this trend will pick up steam in the upcoming years. Startups are raising vast stacks of capital, and all of the legacy motorcycle makers have already embraced it. So let’s take a look at the history of electric motorcycles, where they are now, where they are going, and how you can get them and what’s involved in registering them for the road.

The History of the Electric Motorcycle

It is hard to believe, but the following information is all demonstrably true: the original patents for electric bikes, i.e., the precursors to modern electric motorcycles, were built in the late 1800s! 

Motorcycles have held a significant spot in the hearts of civilization for decades. It may have something to do with them being the closest thing to a horse that you can ride on the road. Maybe it's because they are easy to maneuver, easy on gas, and fun. Whatever it is, there is no getting rid of them. 

The Early Years: 1890s-1950s

The following information is not speculative: electric motorcycles go about as far back as gas-powered motorcycles. 

Two very similar patents hit the U.S. Patent Office within a few months. The first patent request was filed in Canton, Ohio, by Mr. Ogden Bolton, Jr., and the second followed a few months later, coming out of Boston by a Mr. Hosea Libbey. 

The buying class established the impetus for building motorized bikes, and while it waned, it never went away. The late 1910s and early 1920s saw experimenters trying to make it work. The exciting thing is that electric motors are not that different now than they were.

Electrical storage (batteries) has been the weakest link for decades, although battery-powered machinery has been used exclusively in industries where emissions were not an option (mining, warehouses, etc.). 

The big difference, though, is that a warehouse pallet rider or forklift isn’t on the open road, commuting. So if their battery life is a little short, they swap it out for another battery. 

Weight has also been a determining factor. Industrial batteries for electric carts and forklifts are enormous and heavy. It doesn’t matter, either, because these vehicles need to be heavy with a low center of gravity. So advances in battery technology for lighter batteries have not been forced here. 

Courtesy of the Journal of Energy Resources

Technology Advances: Mid-to-Late 20th Century

The technology for cars and motorcycles to sustainably be used for regular commuting and travel has to grow and shift into a viable alternative. But unfortunately, it is far from complete right now. 

Electric mobility is limited by weight and range right now. The weight factor has improved drastically, but the range is still a crippling factor. Why? 

Far more potential energy is stored in a fuel tank than in a battery, or at least a modern battery. Gasoline and diesel are far more effective forms of energy than lithium-ion batteries.

A battery is no match for a gallon of gas in a tank for a couple of reasons: fuel is light, has high energy potential, and is fast to refuel. 

A motorcycle battery takes an hour to fully charge or somewhere in the ballpark, although the more significant the battery, the longer the charge cycle takes. 

The other deficit of battery-powered bikes is that the run time is reduced with increased speed. For example, if you decide to ride 75 mph instead of 65 mph, you will lose considerable range compared to equivalent losses in an electric car.

Now for the benefits: what the electric bikes lack in range and refueling time, they gain in performance, simplicity, lack of maintenance, and quietness (this will be disputed as a con by some). 

Modern Era

The push to “carbon-neutral” transportation is in full swing. Whether this has any net positive impact on anything remains to be seen, but it is what it is. 

Electric motorcycles were largely fringe throughout the twentieth century, and electric mobility is now mainstream in the twenty-first. 

There are a few startups, but we knew the movement was getting serious when Harley-Davidson weighed in with their LiveWire electric motorcycle. So it is at this point we know electric motorcycles are here to stay. 

Well, that and the whole NetZero by 2050 thing. I doubt that the Harley Davidson faithful asked for the LiveWire, but nobody asked me. 

In a nutshell, the powerheads have determined that manufacturers must take the production of greenhouse gasses to ‘net zero’ over the next three decades. The only way to do that? Eliminating fossil fuel vehicles. This is not reflective of what the people, i.e., the consumer, are asking for, as many trends in the automotive industry often are; an outside factor drives it.

And let’s break away from bikes themselves for a moment or two and talk about energy storage and its relation to electric motorcycles.

Advantages and Disadvantages

It is disingenuous to suggest that a relatively unproven form of power production will be vastly superior to the well-proven present method. I don’t think anyone here is questioning that fossil fuel-powered vehicles have their significant shortcomings, and they certainly are a cause of pollution. Still, we had better not turn a blind eye to the significant problems created by leaning exclusively on EVs just yet.

Advantages of Electric Motorcycles

We’re not going to lie: electric motorcycles do have their place today. In fact, for many commuters, they are just the ticket for an efficient, cost-effective, and reliable machine for getting around the city. 

That is the crucial phrase: getting around the city. Electric motorcycles may eventually overcome their range limitation issues as battery storage continues to improve (it will continue to improve; what we see now will not reflect what is available in 2032). 

The cool thing about electric motorcycles is that they are sealed units. There are plenty of reliable motorcycles on the market. However, they are still not ‘no-maintenance.’ Electric motorcycles, on the other hand, require nothing beyond essential lubrication, tires, and brake maintenance. 

Electric motorcycles are very inexpensive to charge. The Harley Davidson LiveWire is equipped with a 15.4 kWh battery, so at the U.S. average cost of 11.21 cents per kWh, it costs roughly $1.73 to recharge that bike. The LiveWire has a city range of 146 miles, so it will cost just a little over one cent per mile. 

By contrast, the Iron 883 cruiser, an entry-level bike by Harley standards, has a 3.3-gallon fuel tank. The U.S. national average cost at writing is $3.53 per gallon, so filling the tank will cost you $11.65. With a fuel economy of 51 mpg, the Iron 883 will go 168 miles between fill-ups, fifteen percent over the LiveWire. However, each mile costs just shy of seven cents. 

Courtesy of the Department of Energy

With that being said, with a sticker price double that of the Iron 883, it will take a lot of fill-ups to make up for that extra ten grand - in 10,000 miles, you would save just $600. Not a small amount by any means, but nowhere near the difference in upfront cost between the two.

Disadvantages of Electrical Motorcycles

I promised we would talk about both sides, so here it is for the negatives of electric motorcycles. 

Range

First up is range. Unless you are planning on strictly commuting in the city, where you know you can get to a reliable charging center in a pinch, driving an electric motorcycle on an extended road trip is a no-go. 

The LiveWire promises 146 miles per charge in the city, but only about 95 miles in mixed traffic and only 70 miles on strictly highway driving.

The LiveWire takes a full hour to get to 100% using DC Fast Charge to make matters less amenable for bikers. The standard charging method through household electrical service is much longer, reaching about eleven hours to reach full charge. 

In short, road trips are impossible on these bikes, although Harley makes no bones about the LiveWire being for anything other than urban transportation. 

Danger

This next point is not directed just at electric motorcycles but all EVs. Lithium-ion batteries are the industry go-to for EVs because they have far better energy density than lead-acid batteries. But lithium-ion batteries have serious drawbacks, too. 

For one, they are chemically prone to catch on fire. We are watching this play out in real-time as the cargo ship Felicity Ace sits unmanned in the Atlantic Ocean, burning away its cargo of expensive cars. Yes, a number of them are electric cars. 

There is a risk of fire anytime you get in a gas-powered car, and lithium-ion-powered devices are not just bursting into flames at the drop of a hat. But it is a real threat. 

Recycling

The next issue is battery recycling, which is closely related. The lead-acid battery recycling process is straightforward. First, the batteries are pulverized, and water separates the components. Then, lead sinks, plastic floats, and is scooped off. 

Lithium-ion batteries are far more temperamental. They must be manually tested, then disassembled by hand, and the individual components are separated for reuse. This laborious process is why most lithium-ion battery packs sit in warehouses or landfills rather than being recycled. This is more problematic because the overabundance of worn-out lithium-ion batteries will only get a lot worse with more vehicles hitting the road using them. 

As you can see, there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to electric motorcycles fitting into today’s world, but there is at least one aspect that is far too familiar.

Registering Your Electric Motorcycle

Unlike registering your electric dirt bike, or even more to the point, registering and tagging an e-dirt bike or e-bikes like a Sur Ron or Talaria, an electric motorcycle is easy to register and tag as long as it was manufactured for road use. Easy, but not necessarily cheap. 

The LiveWire has an MSRP of $21,999. Many states will charge you four to six percent in sales tax to tag and register this bike, which is bad enough, but what if you live in LA? 

LA usually lends itself to be our case study. Why? The taxes are outrageous, that’s why. Parts of the metro area are over ten percent. Ten percent! But with their strict smog check enforcement and insane gas prices, an electric bike makes sense there. However, paying $2,200 to the local DMV does not make sense. 

Here at Dirt Legal, we have a few options to ease the pain if you buy an electric motorcycle, whether it’s a Zero electric motorcycle or a Harley electric motorcycle, or something even more exotic than that

First, our Motorcycle Registration Service can be as low as four percent sales tax (South Dakota). So instead of a $2,200 tax note, you can get down to about $880. On top of that, you will never have to worry about any type of safety inspection because South Dakota does not require it. Finally, if you have a higher-end bike or other expensive vehicles, you might want to consider our Montana LLC Program, which will take your tax bill down to zero!

Good or bad, electric vehicles are here to stay. We are just here to ensure that you aren’t overpaying for title and registration when you don’t have to! Whatever your needs are, we will help you get your car titled, tagged, and on the road. We can also get your dirt bike, ATV, UTV, and even military vehicles registered and tagged! Snowbirding in your luxury RV and taking your golf cart with you? Register that RV with our Montana LLC Program, keep that tax bill in your wallet, and throw a tag on your golf cart!

The future of electric motorcycles is exciting and uncertain, but it’s unlikely much will change on the registration front. So if you need help navigating those waters, let the experts at Dirt Legal help you get on the road. One call to us, and we’ll help you in less time than it takes to charge your bike up.